Serve with Loving Care

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham Parikrama, Day Four
Evening class, 27 March 2021, part 3
Translated from Bengali

You have all completed Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama very well. By the mercy of the Lord, there were no problems. If we get the mercy of our Guru and Vaishnavs, then we must get supreme benefit.

We must always have three qualities—we must be sincere, we must be seekers, and we must have chastity. Sincerity means nistha—constancy, or firm determination. First and foremost we must always think, "Do I have constancy, or firm determination in chanting the Holy Name? Do I have constancy, or firm determination in the worship of the Deities?"

I went to the house of a devotee the other day and I told them, "You have a mistake in your service mood." He is worshipping the Deities with much zest and has brought them here now, but this is not real worship because before you become a devotee of Lord Krishna you must first become a devotee of Gauranga Mahaprabhu.

যদি গৌর না হ'ত তবে কি হইত
কেমনে ধরিতাম দে ।
রাধার মহিমা প্রেমরস-সীমা
জগতে জানাত কে ? ॥

yadi gaura na ha'ta tabe ki ha-ita
kemane dharitam de
radhara mahima, prema-rasa-sima
jagate janata ke?

"If Gaura had not come, then what would have happened? How would we have maintained our lives? Who would have revealed to the world Radha's glory and the extremes of Her ecstatic divine love?"

(Srila Vasudev Ghosh Thakur)

It is said in the scriptures that if you chant the Holy Name of Lord Sri Krishna, you will be making offences, but what Name can you chant without offence? The Names of Nitai and Gaura. We sing in one of the kirtans, "Nitai-Gaurer Namer aparadher vichar ta nai re. There is no judgement of offences when one chants the Names of Nitai and Gaura." When you chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, you must chant giving up the ten offences; on the one hand, as you chant more and more, your offences become removed (that is why it is necessary to chant more and more), and, on the other hand, if you do not worship Gaura, you cannot get Krishna. We must worship Gauranga. If you disturb Gauranga with your 'service', then whom are you serving? You must think about it. You must be very careful that Deities do not become a burden and that you do not harass the Deities. "Do not keep a Deity and make Them a burden. Neither must you keep Deities and harass Them [by not serving Them properly.] Vigraha rekhe galagraha korben na, vigraha rekhe nigraha-o korben na (বিগ্রহ রেখে গলগ্রহ করবেন না, বিগ্রহ রেখে নিগ্রহও করবেন না)."

Gurudev always told householder devotees not to keep Deities because if you do, then the burden of offences will fall on your shoulders. In many houses, the wife and the husband worship the Deities, but their children do not come to this line. What will happen then to those Deities when the husband and the wife die? If their children come to this line and practise Krishna consciousness, it is well and good, otherwise it is a great danger in their life.

You can see what happens when you keep Deities. You cannot come to do the parikrama of Nabadwip Dham, you cannot come to any festival—you will be always staying at home with your Deities. However, if you keep a photograph of any of our Deities, then even if you go away for some time, the worship of those Deities is anyway going on in one place or another, so it is not going to be an offence for you to leave—when you are at home, then you must eternally, daily without fail, worship the Deities. You can see here—how many Gopals devotees have brought! But you cannot bring three Deities (Sri Gauranga, Sri Radha and Sri Krishna) here. We have some space to keep Gopals, but there is no place to keep too many of them or to keep big Deities. That is why I tell everyone—you can take home a photograph and worship Deities in Their photographs form.

Always be careful

সাধুসঙ্গ, নামকীর্ত্তন, ভাগবতশ্রবণ ।
মথুরাবাস, শ্রীমূর্ত্তির শ্রদ্ধায় সেবন ॥

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana
mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

"One should associate with devotees, chant the Holy Name of the Lord, hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the Deity with faith."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.124)

You must serve Deities with faith. Do you understand? With faith. Serve the Lord dedicating all your mind, heart, soul, everything to the service.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

• Listen to the audio or download (1.5 Mb, 4 min)